AUSTRALIA ~ The Antipodes

I love a sunburnt country / A land of sweeping plains / Of ragged mountain ranges / Of droughts and flooding rains / I love her far horizons / I love her jewel-sea / Her beauty and her terror / The wide brown land for me / ~ Dorothea Mackellar (1885-1968)

Weekend Mailbox #16 ~ Why?~WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF WEEKEND MAILBOX!(This pairs with Beth's Postcard Friendship Friday HERE!)LINKS OPEN Saturday at 2:05am Eastern Australia time - Melbourne~A few introductory comments:1. Post a photograph of ANYTHING that relates to mailboxes.Here are a few ideas/subjects!mailboxescardsnotepaperstampsvintage cards/postcardsold letterseven VIRTUAL letterspostal vanspostmen2. Your link must be a "permalink" and go directly to your Weekend Mailbox post.3. Link back to Weekend Mailbox in your post tags.4. You may like to use the Weekend Mailbox badge located in this post or on the sidebar! Right click and save it on your computer. When you add it to your post, ensure you click on the image and link it to Gemma's Greyscale Territory. Then others may follow the link here.P.S. I am aware that U.S. has official mailboxes.But anything related to mail is great for this meme!It's OK to think outside "the mailbox"!!!N.B. As I think of extra possibilities, I will add them to the list!You may even like to suggest some!***PLEASE - Add your NAME + COUNTRY (initials)e.g. Gemma, AUSand link to Linky Tools below.

Friday, July 30, 2010

They were just venetian slats evenly dissecting a window; a round, sealed, smeared window that somehow looked disturbingly like a porthole.The view must be a little high because she could just glimpse the top of a power pole.And tantalising breakfast smells drifted from somewhere below.Was this her first or last meal here?~Hosted by G-Man aka MrKnowItAll

Wheels Friday #5 ~ Beach Buggy Wheels~WELCOME TO WHEELS FRIDAYHere you may post ANYTHING related to WHEELS!You may offer some explanation OR you may simply let us enjoy the view!cars - vintage and modern - exterior or interiortrains/buses/tramstruckssteering wheelsbikes - motorised or pushbikescarts/wagons - vintage or moderntrolleyspaddlewheelerinner mechanisms - e.g. wheels of a clockwhirlygigsart based on wheels

Grab the badge for your post or simply link back with a permalink!(LINKS will usually open Fridays at 2:05am Australian Eastern Standard Time)***PLEASE - Include your NAME + COUNTRY(initials will do!)e.g. Gemma, AUSENJOY!

If we cramp NatureWe abuse caretaker rightsCursed beyond hatred~NOTE: Humanity is driven to progress, to construct. That is our inner need.But to ignore peripheral impacts on Nature, I feel, is our downfall.Respect for Nature, her cycles, her systems should feature more highly on our agenda.Science tells us that for every action, there is always a subsequent (and often equal) reaction...~Hosted by Thom @ Three Word Wednesday

Sunday, July 25, 2010

As he trudged through the cold swirls of morning mist, (barely seeing trees and rocks), to pass the time, he found himself thinking about angels.Traditionally, angels had wings and always wore a halo, like a kind of suspended golden crown.He was pretty sure that the angel of death had wings too.But he could not remember if anything was suspended above this angel's head...

Why was he thinking this way? Perhaps too much map reading before this bushwalking trip.He remembered laughing at the names...Walls of JerusalemMt AchillesMt PelionMt Ossaand he saw other names...Jupiters MoonPromised LandEden RiverParadiseLike a religious, sacred window on older, maybe utopian worlds.

And yet Tasmania's Overland Track sounded just so "outback Australian"!Some outback! Where even in summer, he had been warned that there could be snow falls and icy winds!Right now, in December, just before Christmas, he was tasting thick icy mist and his companion should be just ahead of him...should be!

The trek was meant to be a bonding experience...bonding with Nature...bonding with his companion. (He had never asked her to be his wife.Strangely, he couldn't recall too many times that he even referred to her as a friend.)

Their lives together had wavered in recent years. She was a university lecturer and he was just a furniture removalist. Everyone called them the odd couple. Once he thought that he loved her for encouraging him to return to studies. He admitted to frittering away school days and really wanted to mend wasted time in his life. But her encouragement had insidiously transformed into nagging. His good intentions were slipping and he was beginning to see her as one of his former teachers - pushing deadlines and rules. He couldn't work under those tight conditions.

And now, here they were, trying to find common ground with Nature...But she was a little closer to the ground than he was...

He looked up, wondering if something was suspended there...shrugged...smiled...and suddenly felt he had wings to flydeliriouslyfree...

Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ Winter boughs in my garden in the Dromana Hills, Mornington Peninsula~Carry on Tuesday #63 ~ This week our prompt is a quote from the Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran:Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.

NOTE: As much as I love the writings of Kahlil Gibran, I don't really agree with his thought.I believe that leaves have a role to play in love.They are the strength behind the seasonal beauty of blossoms and fruit!~

Naked silhouettesCold seasonal skeletonsLike sleeping spectres

Leafy silhouettesFresh cyclical beginningsNew awakenings

Bright blossoms and fruitLike gowns of bountiful loveSweet juices of life

Trees locked in just leavesA kind of lonely gypsyLike partly living

But seasons roll byChange is a part of livingWinter will return

In the darker timesNurture the blossoms and fruitFind strength in the leaves~Hosted by Keith's Ramblings

Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ One of my favourite "dreaming" walkways at Red Hill, Mornington Peninsula.It winds past farms, animals and rolling hills with glimpses of the waters of Westernport Bay.AND I love all the textures of the tall tree trunks along the way!~SOOC Sunday #90~

Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ Seagulls all doing their own "thing" at Sorrento beach, Mornington Peninsula.This photo seems odd to me.Seagulls are standing on rocks right near seagulls swimming - with only a small difference in height.~

Grab the badge for your post or simply link back with a permalink!(LINKS will usually open Sundays at 7:00am Australian Eastern Standard Time)*** PLEASE - Include your NAME + COUNTRY(initials will do!)e.g. Gemma, AUSENJOY!

Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ Cockatoos on my verandah railing in the Dromana Hills, Mornington Peninsula.Cockatoos are not known for fancy manners.If another cockatoo is eating desirable food, it is quite OK to attempt to snatch it - even from the mouth!~Camera Critters #120~

Snatch and grab crittersCockatoos are not politeAll food is fair game~Hosted by Misty + supported by Tammy

Lady Gemma

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About Me ~ Blogging since 4.07.07

Over 50! And Motoring!

T.S.Eliot's poetry has never failed to intoxicate me! In fact, his sunlight on a broken column, his midnights and lamp posts, his female rhythms mouthing Michelangelo pleasantries are all bound up in the "overwhelming question" of our real biorhythms and souls! ~
We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.
~~~~Ray Bradbury
~~~~Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.~~~Anton Chekhov ~~~
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.
~Angela Monet

AUSTRALIAN BLOGGER

Footfalls echo in the memory,
Down the passage which we did not take,
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden.- T.S.Eliot ..............................
My page was too white/My ink was too thin/The day wouldn’t write/What the night pencilled in
-'The Book of Longing'
Leonard Cohen.....................
Creative discord of fractured harmonies! Between the Question and the Answer is
A Hush...
A Whisper...
A Dreaming... The grit of raw desert lands whirls on the winds in erotic rhythms - sometimes.
- Greyscale

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IN MEMORY OF SPADOMAN Monday 2.12.13 Miss his smiling view of the world in all its jagged pieces

I'm a Renaisance Man. I've been a lot of places and done a lot of things. I tell stories, sometimes, when I'm in the mood or especially when someone asks me. I don't want to believe I have an ego problem, but I admit I have an ego. All I really desire is when you hear that I have passed, I hope you can say, "Too bad, he was a nice guy."

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~ The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.~ Tagore